An 'open window' for a rail link

Canadian officials see chance for high-speed connection with U.S.

By ERIC ANDERSON Business editor

Published 12:01 am, Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Photo: Lori Van Buren

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Transport Minister Sam Hamad talks about high-speed rail connecting Quebec with the Capital Region and New York City at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Albany, NY on March 15, 2011. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Transport Minister Sam Hamad talks about high-speed rail connecting Quebec with the Capital Region and New York City at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Albany, NY on March 15, 2011. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Photo: Lori Van Buren

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Transport Minister Sam Hamad talks about high-speed rail connecting Quebec with the Capital Region and New York City at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Albany, NY on March 15, 2011. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Transport Minister Sam Hamad talks about high-speed rail connecting Quebec with the Capital Region and New York City at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Albany, NY on March 15, 2011. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Photo: Lori Van Buren

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Transport Minister Sam Hamad talks about high-speed rail connecting Quebec with the Capital Region and New York City at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Albany, NY on March 15, 2011. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Transport Minister Sam Hamad talks about high-speed rail connecting Quebec with the Capital Region and New York City at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Albany, NY on March 15, 2011. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Photo: Lori Van Buren

An 'open window' for a rail link

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ALBANY -- The last time someone suggested high-speed passenger trains connecting Montreal and New York City through the Capital Region, the idea got little support south of the border.

Now, citing the Obama administration's own high-speed rail efforts, Quebec officials believe the time is right.

"There's an open window today that didn't exist in the time of (Mayor Jean) Drapeau," said Sam Hamad, Quebec's minister of transport.

Hamad was referring to the late Montreal mayor, who brought the Expo 67 world's fair, the Metro, the 1976 Summer Olympics and even Major League baseball to his city. His suggestion to connect his city with New York by TGV, shortening the trip to three hours, went nowhere, however.

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Quebec and Ontario are studying a high-speed rail line that would connect Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Windsor, adjacent to Detroit. Two Canadian companies, Bombardier Inc. and Canadian Pacific Railway, could play a role in that effort and any project to bring high-speed trains to the New York City route.

Canadian Pacific owns the tracks between Montreal and the Capital Region, and Bombardier makes high-speed trains. It has a plant in Plattsburgh.

"We deal with (Canadian Pacific) every day," Hamad said. "We have a very good relationship."

Hamad and John Parisella, Quebec's delegate general to New York, envision a mega-region of New York, New England, Quebec and Ontario that eventually would be tied together by high-speed rail.

They didn't offer specifics on how such a line would be financed, or what it would cost.

Even before that, however, their concern is to streamline customs procedures.

Now, trains sit at the border while customs and immigration officers go through each car, a procedure that can take two hours.

Hamad envisions Adirondack passengers being cleared at the Montreal train station after arrival and before departure, much as U.S.-bound airline passengers now are cleared at Montreal's airport.

"The pre-clearance idea is the one we prioritize," said Parisella. "We're speaking with different jurisdictions to make some people more comfortable with this.

"It's premature to say how that would turn out," he added.

Hamad and Parisella were in Albany for an event called Moving the New York-Quebec Relationship Forward, a day of meetings with New York's elected officials.